Report child abuse in early childhood

​​​​Ensure immediate safety

If a child has just been abused, or is at immediate risk of harm you must take reasonable steps to protect them. These include:

• separating the alleged victim and others involved, ensuring all parties are supervised by a service staff member
• arranging and providing urgent medical assistance where necessary by:
  • administering first aid assistance
  • calling 000 for an ambulance and following any instructions from emergency service officers/paramedics
  • calling 000 for urgent police assistance if the person who is alleged to have engaged in the abuse poses an immediate risk to the health and safety of any person (you should also identify a contact person at the service for future liaison with police).

Preserve evidence

Where an incident of suspected child abuse occurs at the service, you may need to preserve evidence until the police or other relevant authorities arrive on the premises. ​Consider all of the following:

• Environment: Do not clean up the area and preserve the sites where the alleged incidents occurred. Cordon off the relevant area/room/building and take reasonable steps to ensure that no one enters these areas.
• Clothing: If sexual abuse/physical abuse is suspected you may also need to ensure that the person who has allegedly committed the abuse and the child who has allegedly been abused remain in their clothing and, if this is not possible, ensure that the clothes are not washed, are handled as little as possible, and stored in a sealable bag.
• Other Physical Items: If there are any other items that may amount to evidence (e.g. weapons, bedding, condoms), try to ensure that these things remain untouched.
• Potential Witnesses: Reasonable precautions must be taken to prevent discussion of the incident between those involved in the alleged incident (including any other children who may have witnessed the incident).

Staff supervision will depend on who the incident involves:

• Incidents with Children​, a staff member should be allocated to remain with each student involved in separate rooms if the incidence involves.
• Incidents with a staff member, a staff member of the service’s leadership team (if possible) should remain with the staff and the staff member should be instructed not to discuss the incident with anyone. ​​

​Reporting when the source of the suspected abuse is within the service

​If the source of suspected abuse comes from within the service (this includes any forms of suspected child abuse involving a staff member, contractor or volunteer):

• You must contact Victoria Police via your local police station (where appropriate they will refer you on to the local Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT)).
• You must make a report to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) Child Protection if you're a mandatory reporter.
• You must also report internally to management who will notify your approved provider.
• ​You must also notify the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD).
  • National Quality Framework (NQF) services can notify through the National Quality Agenda (NQA ITS)​
  • Occasional care or limited hours services must submit form AS14: Notification of complaints incidents and additional children in an emergency by emailing licensed.childrens.services@education.vic.gov.au.
  • Contact us on 1300 307 415 or your local QARD regional office.
  • For more information, visit Quality Assessment and Regulation Division.
• You must also identify a contact person at the service for future liaison with Child Protection and Victoria Police and get advice about contacting the parent/carer(s). For further advice, see Action 4: Providing ongoing support.

Child-led abuse refers to child-led sexual offending, involving children 10 years and over. This must be reported to the Victoria Police.

If the suspected abuse involves child-led sexual offending by a child aged between 10 – 14 years (up to 15 years of age), you may also consider making a report to DFFH Child Protection if you believe that the child may be in need of therapeutic treatment.

In cases of child-led sexual offending, it's also important to consider the underlying causes of the child's behaviour.

If you form a reasonable belief that the child is engaging in child-led sexual offending because they have been subject to abuse, you must also report this belief.

Reporting when the source of suspected abuse is within the family or community

If the source of suspected abuse comes from within the family or community:

• you must report to DFFH Child Protection if a child is considered to be:
  • in need of protection due to child abuse
  • at risk of being, harmed (or has been harmed), and the harm has had, or is likely to have, a serious impact on the child's safety, stability or development.
• you must also report suspected sexual abuse (including grooming) to Victoria Police
• you must also report internally to management (your approved provider or licensee in all instances)
• approved services must also notify the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division of any serious incidents, circumstances, or complaints which raise concerns about the safety, health, and wellbeing of a child being educated and cared for by a service. ​

To make notifications, visit National Quality Assessment IT System (NQA ITS)​ or call QARD on 1300 307 415. For more information, visit Quality Assessment and Regulatory Division​.

Please note that reporting internally does not mean that mandatory reporting obligations have been met. The staff member who has formed a reasonable belief regarding child abuse or neglect must also report to DFFH Child Protection or Victoria Police if the child is in immediate risk of harm.

If you believe that a child is not subject to abuse, but you still hold significant concerns for their wellbeing, ​Making additional reports - concerns about a ​student's wellbeing.

How you should proceed if your approved provider advises you not to make a report

In some circumstances, your approved provider may advise you not to proceed with reporting suspected abuse.

Regardless of this advice, if you hold a reasonable belief that a child has been, or is at risk of being abused you must still make a report to DFFH Child Protection and/or Victoria Police. This report may be critical in protecting a child from abuse.

If you fail to report you may not discharge your duty of care and in some circumstances you may be subject to criminal charges.

If you decide not to report, you should document your decision.

Read:

• Responding to suspected child abuse template (PDF, 268KB)
• Responding to suspected child abuse template (DOCX, 181KB)

If a report has already been made, view the section below: Making additional reports​​​.

Making additional reports in circumstances where a report has already been made

Reporting further reasonable grounds for belief

You must make a new report in any circumstance where you become aware of any further reasonable grounds for the belief. Every report is critical to protecting a child by building evidence and enabling authorities to gain a clearer understanding of the risks.

This means that you must make a report to protect a child even if you are aware that:

• DFFH Child Protection or Victoria Police were previously involved or are already involved with the child and/or their family
• another party, such as a family member, has already raised concerns with the relevant authorities.

If another person has already made a report

Once you form a reasonable belief that a child has been, or is at risk of being abused, your obligation to report is separate from the obligations or actions of other people. You should still make a report.

In addition, it's important to consider that other people may not have access to the specific detail you have. The information you provide through your report may assist the relevant authority to take further action to protect the child.

However, there may be times when two or more service staff members have formed a belief about the same child on the same occasion and based on the same information. In this situation it's sufficient that only one of the staff members make a report.

The other is obliged to ensure that the report has been made and that all the grounds for their own belief were included in the report made by the other person.

In instances where two staff members form different views about whether or not to make a report, if one staff member continues to hold a reasonable belief that a child is in need of protection, then they are legally obliged to make a report.

You may still need to contact DFFH Child Protection and/or Victoria Police and/or make a referral to Child FIRST if:

• you do not think the child is at risk of abuse but you still hold concerns about a student's wellbeing
• you believe that a child is not subject to child abuse, but you still hold significant concerns for their wellbeing.

​​​​Seeking advice before contacting parents

Before contacting a parent/carer, you must contact Victoria Police or the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) Child Protection (depending on who the report has been made to). They will advise your service about whether it's appropriate to contact parents/carers at this stage.

You will be advised not to contact the parents in circumstances where:

• the parents are alleged to have engaged in the abuse
• a disclosure to the parent/carer may subject the child to further abuse
• the notification is likely to adversely affect the investigation of the incident by the relevant authorities.

Making contact with parents, where advised as appropriate​

Where advised to be appropriate, your service should make sensitive and professional contact with parents as soon as possible on the day of the incident, disclosure or suspicion.

In many cases where it is suspected that a child has been, or is at risk of being abused, it is extremely important that parents/carers are notified as soon as practicable. This enables parents/carers to take steps to:

• prevent or limit their child’s exposure to further abuse.
• ensure that their child receives the support that they require.

It's also a requirement under the National Quality Framework that parents be contacted within 24 hours, if the suspected abuse occurs whilst a child is at an education or care service.

However, there are some circumstances where contacting parents/carers may place a child at greater risk.​

How to discuss concerns with parents or carers

When talking to parents/carers about suspected abuse, it is important to:

• remain calm
• be empathetic to feelings and acknowledge distress
• acknowledge and validate concerns
• provide appropriate details of the incident, disclosure and/or suspicion of child abuse
• outline the action the school staff have taken to date
• inform them of who the incident, disclosure and/or suspicion has been reported to
• provide the name and contact phone number of DFFH Child Protection and/or the police officer who is investigating
• provide information on whether they are likely to be contacted by DFFH Child Protection or Victoria Police (if known)
• inform them that the investigation may take some time and ask what further information they would like and how school staff can assist them.

For more advice on what information can be shared, refer to Privacy and information sharing.

​Making sure a child is safe and supported when attending the service

Services must operate in a way that ensures the safety, health and wellbeing of children and meets their educational and developmental needs.

Where appropriate, services need to provide holistic support to children and families to address the trauma and wellbeing issues associated with child abuse is best achieved through careful planning.

Where appropriate, services should consider:​

• establishing regular communication with the child's parent/carer to plan support strategies and discuss a child's progress, and the success of any support strategies
• engage allied health professionals with expertise in addressing child abuse and trauma to support the service to design and implement support strategies
• establish a safety plan, in instances where the abuse has been led by a person within the service, and/or visiting the service to mitigate risk of further abuse.

Providing referrals to support services (where appropriate)

Services can also refer children and their families to a wide range of support services, specialising in providing tailored support and advice for children impacted by abuse and their families.

For example, Sexual Assault Services Victoria (formerly CASA) provide expert support for victims of sexual assault including a Crisis Line and Australian Childhood Foundation provide recognised programs that counsel and support children to recover.

Other agencies such as Safe Steps and Safe and Equal provide support and referrals to victims of family violence.

Where appropriate it's recommended that you provide families with the details of available support services. This corresponds with the requirements under National Qualify Standard 6.1.3, that current information is available to families about community services and resources to support parenting and family wellbeing.

Providing developmentally and culturally appropriate support

Whilst a child’s background should not impact on a decision to report suspected abuse, staff and volunteers in early childhood services need to be sensitive to a child’s individual circumstances.

It's a requirement under the Child Safe Standards that services 'take account of the diversity of all children', including (but not limited to) the needs of:

Children with disabilities

When supporting a child with disability who has been impacted by child abuse it is critical to consider the child's:

• chronological age, developmental age and their cognitive functioning in order to tailor developmentally appropriate support strategies
• vulnerability to ongoing abuse when considering the need to make a further report and/or implement risk mitigation strategies (children with disabilities disproportionately fall prey to child abuse, in particular child sexual abuse).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

When supporting an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child who has been impacted by child abuse, in addition to taking action to protect a child's safety and wellbeing, it is essential that services provide culturally appropriate support.

It's important to recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have a specific history, and cultural traditions, and may be sensitive to the way Aboriginal issues are represented. For example:

• it may be inappropriate to use peoples' names or images and you should always ask
• family violence is not an aspect of 'traditional' Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultures (family violence is obviously unacceptable in any cultural context and care should be taken not to suggest that culture or ethnicity explains family violence).

There are interconnecting and trans-generational experiences of abuse within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The impact of this abuse is compounded by the fact that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have:

• not had access to culturally appropriate services or supports
• a fear or distrust of government supports
• experienced significant socioeconomic disadvantage and marginalisation as a result of their Aboriginal status.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) plays an important role in providing referrals, advice/information, duty work or case work assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the State of Victoria.

Children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds

When supporting a child from CALD backgrounds who has been impacted by child abuse, in addition to taking action to protect a child's safety and wellbeing, it is essential that services provide culturally appropriate support. However, this should not detract from ensuring the child’s safety and wellbeing.

Where possible services should work with relevant cultural support services (ensuring that the confidentiality of the child and family is maintained) and engage an interpreter when communicating with the student’s family if needed.

Children with refugee backgrounds

When working with children from refugee backgrounds who have been impacted by child abuse it is important to recognise that they (and their families) may also be experiencing trauma, dislocation and loss. This trauma may significantly affect family wellbeing and parenting capacity and whilst these issues also require sensitive consideration, they should not detract from ensuring the child’s safety and wellbeing (or impact on decisions to report suspected abuse).

Services should consider contacting services that specialise in providing support to refugees (ensuring that the confidentiality of the child and their family is maintained) such as Foundation House.

Support for impacted staff members

It can be stressful for staff involved in any incidents, disclosures or suspicions of child abuse, especially if they have also experienced abuse.

It's recommended that you speak to your service provider about arranging appropriate support.

You should also consider:

• talking to your GP or another allied health professional
• reporting historical or current experiences of abuse to Victoria Police.

You can also contact Life Line on 13 11 14 or chat to someone online at Lifeline.

Responding to subpoenas or court attendance

A subpoena/witness summons is a Court Order that compels you to produce documents, or attend Court and give evidence, or to do both of these things.

You are usually issued with a subpoena/witness summons because one of the parties to the legal proceedings believes that you may have information/documentation that is relevant to the legal proceeding.

You must comply with the subpoena/witness summons because there can be serious consequences for not doing so.

If you are unsure about your obligations under a subpoena/witness summons, speak to your manager, and ask for support to respond to the subpoena.

This support may include obtaining independent legal advice. It is not appropriate to contact the lawyer who issued the subpoena/witness summons for advice. For more information, visit Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria.

Responding to complaints or concerns

There may be concerns or complaints about the service's management of an incident, in particular by parents/carers. This is a very stressful time for parents/carers, and concerns, which they do not believe have been dealt with fairly may quickly escalate.

You should refer all concerns or complaints that are raised by parents or carers to your approved provider as soon as they are received.

If you have concerns that the health, safety and wellbeing of children may have been compromised by the actions of your approved provider (or another approved provider), or if you believe the relevant legislation has been contravened, you should make a complaint to the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division (QARD).